Queen of Demise: The Fallen Book Three

Chapter Six - Amelia

I try to exhale calmly as I lie on the bed, facing the ceiling and counting each row of the timber planks above me.

"Why are you so anxious?" Oliver asks me, the tune from his piano barely reaching my thoughts.

"I never said I was anxious."

"I can literally smell your blood curdling. Did you want to talk about it?" Leaning up on my elbows and staring at him, the faint smirk across his face mimicking on my own.

"I'd been conversing with Alistair online for a couple of months. I would have thought 'oh, and my master is the future Queen of Hell' would have come up. Am I crazy?"

"No, but you're probably thinking too much about it. If the rumours are true she's not that bad."

"Her father is the actual devil."

"He's still an angel, just like you."

"Yeah, it's just...there's something else going on. I know there is. I don't like it."

"What they do in their own time is their business. We have no reason to suspect anything. Besides, Sierra is a human that seems to trust them completely." I stand up and walk over to him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders from behind, leaning most of my weight on his back and kissing his neck.

"I just know she's keeping a secret. It could be nothing important, but I don't like secrets in this house."

"You seem stressed."

"Want to do something about it?" I tease.

"Not while there are an ever growing amount of beasts under this roof with the ability to hear a pin drop next door. You're loud enough as it is."

"Um, hey, rude." He laughs and stands up, moving away from the seat and taking me in his arms.

"They're only here for a little while, besides, we can always go somewhere else."

"Like where?"

"Well, since you sent my father and the whole clan away, the family cabin in the hills should be abandoned. I was thinking of checking it out. It might be a nice place to stow away when we want some real alone time together."

"What do you mean real alone time?"

"You know how we are alone in this room right now?" I nod. "Just because we're alone, doesn't mean-"

Knock. Knock. "Amelia, are you in there? I need to talk to you."

"See what I mean?" I give him a reassuring smile and leave his embrace to open the door. Kane is standing there, a little bewildered.

"What's wrong?" I ask,

"Something's up with Seth. He won't move or respond." Alarm overcomes me as I follow him down one set of stairs. I almost turn the wrong way assuming Seth was in his own room but I follow Kane towards his. Standing in the middle of his room is Seth, his eyes wiped clear of color, staring into nothing.

"Seth?" I question, walking toward him. I recall him mentioning that psychics can go on spirit walks, but it takes immense concentration – and I don't think that would be possible if he were alone with Kane only moments before. Should I move him? Touch him? Or leave him where he is? "Seth?" I ask again. But still no response. If he really is traveling in a spirit walk, then I probably shouldn't touch him. But I also know from experience that a spirit walk could also be brought on by something else entirely. If his soul felt trapped, it would have done anything to get out and take him on one of these walks so that he could understand what he truly was and what he felt. I've never known Seth to keep anything from me and he usually is quite open about how he feels and what he's thinking. The only thing he keeps to himself is foretells of the future that we're not supposed to know.

Deciding to throw caution to the wind, I touch his shoulders. At first nothing happens, but I close my eyes and concentrate. When I open my eyes again, I am somewhere else entirely. I am surrounded by dusty wind. I can feel each speck as it hits my skin and I walk around trying to see what's in front of me, but the sands beneath my feet move around and make me trip over.

I call out Seth's name, but no sound comes out. I look around and above me it appears that it should be daytime, but the moon is out instead. The colors of the sky shift around from pink to blue to purple to a dark black. What is this place?

I try to scream as the sands move around once again and make me fall backwards. I feel a hand grab me. As I look up, I can see Seth, but he doesn't look like he should. His pale skin and dead eyes feel drained. If I didn't know any better and he was standing in front of me, I would have assumed I stumbled upon his corpse. He pulls me to my feet and we run. I don't know where we're running too exactly, but something tells me we're in deep danger. I hold on to his hand tightly and imagine asked back in the house. Whatever this place is, surely if Seth isn't strong enough to take us back, then I should be. I keep focusing, allowing Seth to lead the way and keep us out of danger. My body feels like it's falling again, deeper and deeper into a slumber. And yet I feel my feet running.

Again, a scream attempts to escape me as we plummet, deep down into what feels like a drowning abyss. I don't know when it was we reached water, but I can't breathe.

Out of nowhere, my eyes open and I inhale deeply. Seth is standing in front of me and we are back in Kane's room, both attempting to catch our breath.

"What happened?" Oliver questions, concern plastered over his face. I look up at Seth, hoping he has some sort of answer.

"I'm not really sure." He says. "I think someone pulled me there. But once I was there, I couldn't find a way back."

"Where was that?" I question him, hoping he for some reason might have knowledge of where we just were.

"I think it was an arena."

"What?"

"I've heard rumors that if your soul was challenged by an Angel, it could be sent to the arena for judgment." Anger starts to fill my thoughts. If Morgana challenged him and sent him there against his will, I'm gonna be so pissed. "Why would anyone send you there?"

"Probably because I'm a liar." He sighs, allowing himself to drop to the floor.

"What? Seth, what are you talking about?" Kane comes forward to sit beside him.

"When she approached me the other day, she said something. She told me to keep her secret at an exchange, she would keep mine. The truth is, I don't know what her secret is, but keeping my secret is eating me up inside."

"Seth," I begin, ", if you don't want to tell us what you're hiding, you do not have to. Especially just because someone else brought it up."

"Thank you." He smiles. "Technically it's not just my secret to keep, so that's why I haven't said anything. I need to talk to the other person to be sure I can say something. But I will do that because you deserve to know the truth." It pains me to think that Seth has been keeping something from me, but if he was keeping it because of somebody else, I can understand why. When a secret is shared between two people, it should be up to the judgment of both of them to decide when to tell someone else.

Even if it means one of them might get hurt.